A man of letters

Kingston University has a new chairman of its board of governors, Jerry Cope. For his day job, Mr Cope represents Royal Mail on the board of the troubled Consignia group. Consignia announced record £1.1 billion losses for last year, and last month unveiled 17,000 job cuts as well as the end of its loathed name. Despite the Royal Mail's proposal to charge small businesses to receive their post before 9am, Consignia is set to incur hundreds of millions of pounds in further losses. Kingston staff must be wondering what to expect - and when.